Centrally Protected Monuments Missing

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in news?
• What are centrally protected monuments?
• What are the roles and responsibilities of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)?
• News Summary about centrally protected monuments gone missing

 

Why in news?

• According to a submission made in Parliament by the Ministry of Culture, as many as 50 of India’s 3,693 centrally protected monuments are missing.

 

What are centrally protected monuments?

• The centrally protected monuments are sites which have been declared so under the provisions of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 (AMASR Act).
• The AMASR Act regulates the preservation of monuments and archaeological sites of national and historical importance that are more than 100 years old.

 

What are the roles and responsibilities of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)?

• ASI, under the Ministry of Culture, is the premier organization for the archaeological researches and protection of the cultural heritage of the nation. 
  • It was founded in 1861 by Alexander Cunningham.
• Maintenance of ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains of national importance is the prime concern of the ASI. 
• Besides, it regulates all archaeological activities in the country as per the provisions of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958. 

 

News Summary about centrally protected monuments gone missing

• Recently, the Ministry of Culture has informed Parliament that fifty of India’s 3,693 centrally protected monuments have gone missing.
• The submissions were made by the ministry to a Parliamentary Standing Committee as part of a report titled ‘Issues relating to Untraceable Monuments and Protection of Monuments in India’.

 

How can a monument go missing?

• Several monuments of national importance have become untraceable over the years due to rapid urbanisation, being submerged by reservoirs and dams, difficulties in tracing in remote locations and dense forests, non-availability of their proper location, etc.

 

What are the challenges faced by ASI in conserving centrally protected monuments?

• Many of such cases pertain to inscriptions and tablets, which don’t have a fixed address.
  • A bulk of the centrally protected monuments were identified in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, and that in the decades after Independence.
  • At that time, the focus was on discovering new monuments than on conserving them.
• ASI is also grappling with an acute manpower shortage to physically man all the big and small monuments which may fall under a particular region.
• Lack of adequate funds also affected the conservation efforts of ASI.

 

Is this the first time monuments have been reported missing?

• As per ASI officials, a comprehensive physical survey of all monuments has never been conducted after Independence.
• However, in 2013, a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report said that at least 92 centrally protected monuments across the country had gone missing.
  • Out of the 92 monuments declared as missing by the CAG, 42 have been identified due to efforts made by the ASI. 
• The CAG report said that the ASI did not have reliable information on the exact number of monuments under its protection. 
• It recommended that periodic inspection of each protected monument be carried out by a suitably ranked officer.

 

What is the process of deleting the lost/untraceable monuments from the protected list?

• The deletion requires denotification of the said monument under Section 35 of the AMASR Act, which happens to be a long-drawn process.
• The Parliamentary Committee recommended that the untraceable monuments may not be removed from the list, because once that is done, there would be no imperative to find them.
• Hence, the Committee recommended that the list of Untraceable Monuments may be maintained as such and if necessary, the AMASR Act be amended to include this terminology.

 

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Q1) Which monuments are protected as centrally protected monuments?

According to the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, monuments and heritage sites, which are more than 100 years old, are protected by the ASI. 

 

Q2) What is National Monuments Authority?

National Monuments Authority (NMA) under the Ministry of Culture, has the responsibility of protection and preserving monuments and sites through the management of the prohibited and regulated area around the centrally protected monuments.

 

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Source: 50 centrally protected monuments ‘missing’: Govt  |  IE  |  Archaeological Survey of India  |  PIB